The leader of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is almost certainly still alive, according to one of Iraqi Kurdistan's intelligence chiefs, despite several reports that he was killed in Syria in June. "Baghdadi is definitely alive. He is not dead. We have information that he is alive. We believe 99 percent he is alive," Lahur Talabany told Reuters in an interview. "Don't forget his roots go back to Al-Qaeda days in Iraq. He was hiding from security services. He knows what he is doing," he added.

President Trump faced something different while attending the U.S. Women's Open at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J. — a tiny and polite protest. In fact the three women and one man wearing purple t-shirts reading, "USGA, Dump Sexist Trump," simply stared at the president once he arrived a little after 3 p.m and then gave up less than an hour later to get some ice cream, according to the White House pool report. It didn't appear that Trump, wearing a campaign "Make America Great Again" hat and who also attended Saturday's tournament, saw the protesters, apparently part of the...

And guess who defines what constitutes 'hate speech'? An article in the Sunday Review section of the July 16 New York Times posed a question which, once upon a more innocent time, would have been considered nonsensical: “When Is Speech Violence?” The response of any person who cares about the clarity of language would properly be “Never,” but Lisa Feldman Barrett, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, asserts in the Times piece that the science is settled: “speech that bullies and torments” is “literally a form of violence.” It might seem obvious, Barrett begins, that “violence is physically damaging;...

The R&B singer R. Kelly is holding six women against their will in an abusive "cult," according to the parents of several of the women and to three former members of Kelly's inner circle, whom BuzzFeed interviewed in an explosive new report. "Six women live in properties rented by Kelly in Chicago and the Atlanta suburbs," the report says, citing details from Cheryl Mack, Kitti Jones, and Asante McGee, the three former inner-circle members. "He controls every aspect of their lives: dictating what they eat, how they dress, when they bathe, when they sleep, and how they engage in sexual...

<p>The New York Times has asked a judge to toss out a defamation lawsuit former Alaska governor Sarah Palin filed against it, saying there was not actual malice in a recent editorial it quickly corrected after readers complained.</p>
<p>The newspaper said in court papers late Friday that its prompt and full correction of an editorial that referenced Palin's political action committee nullifies her claims.</p>

The Dale Norman open carry case in Florida has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Most cases that are appealed to the Supreme Court are refused. The case started back in 2012, when Dale Lee Norman walked down the street with his pistol showing. He had recently obtained his concealed carry permit, and did not realize that his firearm was completely exposed. He was convicted of the open carry of a firearm. His case was appealed to the 4th Circuit court of appeals. The state Advocate General fought very hard to keep the case from being appealed. The...

When Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik massacred 14 people in San Bernardino, California in 2015, newly retired Department of Homeland Security Officer Philip Haney was horrified to discover that a major case he spent years developing might have helped prevent the attack had it not been shut down by a branch of his own agency and Hillary Clinton’s State Department. Now, in his ongoing effort to help prevent future attacks by uncovering how the government quashed his case, three federal agencies either have flatly denied they have any communications or records related to the case, known as the Tablighi Jamaat Initiative, or...

A new online game encourages users to send a virtual President Trump to his death, either by sending him off a cliff, down a manhole, into a volcano or into the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The game, “Push Trump Off A Cliff Again,” instructs users to “Take out your frustrations with [the] President by pushing him off a virtual cliff, or into a virtual volcano.” A virtual Trump shouts out phrases including “Bye!” and “I’m really rich!” as he tumbles to his death.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is hedging over whether he'll back the Senate's new ObamaCare replacement bill. Johnson initially indicated he could back the measure, but told a local newspaper that he's now not so sure because of comments by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggesting some Medicaid cuts in the bill may not happen. "I am concerned about Leader [Mitch] McConnell's comments to apparently some of my Republican colleagues — 'Don't worry about some of the Medicaid reforms, those are scheduled so far in the future they'll never take effect,'" Johnson told the Green Bay Press-Gazette in remarks that...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — O.J. Simpson, the former football star, TV pitchman and now Nevada prison inmate No. 1027820, will have a lot going for him when he asks state parole board members this week to release him after serving more than eight years for an ill-fated bid to retrieve sports memorabilia. Now 70, Simpson will have history in his favor and a clean record behind bars as he approaches the nine-year minimum of his 33-year sentence for armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Plus, the parole board sided with him once before.

Holding aloft icons, crosses and portraits of Russia’s last tsar, tens of thousands of pilgrims have made a 13-mile walk near the Russian city of Ekaterinburg to mark the anniversary of the execution of Nicholas II. In the early hours of Monday morning, the pilgrims walked to the spot where Nicholas and his family were executed 99 years ago. This year marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution, and debates are surfacing about how modern Russia should view the events of 1917, in which the February Revolution overthrew the deeply unpopular Nicholas. After the Bolsheviks seized power later in the...

South Carolina’s port traffic reached an all-time high during the 2017 fiscal year. The state Ports Authority (SCPA) on Wednesday reported it moved a record 2.14 million 20-foot equivalent units between July 2016 and June 2017, a 10 percent increase compared with the previous year. SCPA said the volume at its Inland Port in Spartanburg County near Greer finished the year having completed a record 121,761 rail moves, a 33 percent increase compared with fiscal year 2016. “We had a strong fiscal year, reflective of a capable and hardworking SCPA team and entire maritime community,” said Jim Newsome, president and...

A former Georgia teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her student appeared to blame the teenage victim in court for roping her in “like a used car salesman,” PEOPLE confirms. Therese Gunn, 54, confessed Friday to having a sexual relationship with a student who was 17, Karen West, Managing District Attorney at the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office, tells PEOPLE. The ex-orchestra teacher apologized for her actions before telling a judge the teen had coerced her. “He was like a used car salesman,” Gunn said. Gunn was sentenced to 90 days in prison and up to 10 years of...

A new online game encourages users to send a virtual President Trump to his death, either by sending him off a cliff, down a manhole, into a volcano or into the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The game, "Push Trump Off A Cliff Again," instructs users to "Take out your frustrations with [the] President by pushing him off a virtual cliff, or into a virtual volcano." A virtual Trump shouts out phrases including "Bye!" and "I'm really rich!" as he tumbles to his death. Online users have played the game almost two million times, according to the site’s count, thanks...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (5:40 P.M.) – Today, Turkey-led Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants launched a surprise attack in the northern countryside of Aleppo, striking at the defenses of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the town of ‘Ayn Daqqinah. Following a heavy pre-assault bombardment with howitzers, mortars and improvised rocket systems (seen in the video below), FSA fighters broke through the front-lines of the SDF and seized ‘Ayn Daqqinah. According to opposition sources, the specific FSA unit that attacked the SDF was comprised of several fighters who originate from the town of ‘Ayn Daqqinah. These individuals were expelled after...

Some of the responses to the news that Donald Trump Jr. met with a slew of Russians seem a tad unhinged. We should reject the outlandish claim that the meeting “borders on treason,” as former White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter put it. Moreover, it is far from evident that the meeting even violates campaign finance laws, as a number of legal scholars have asserted. But we should also dismiss those who argue that the meeting is “such a nothing” (in the words of Trump Jr.). We can do so because that runs counter to months of insistent denial that...

In May, as noted at NewsBusters, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray ended his run for reelection in the wake of "mounting allegations that he sexually abused underage boys in the 1980s." On Sunday, the Seattle Times reported that records previously thought destroyed revealed that "An Oregon child-welfare investigator concluded" that" Murray "sexually abused his foster son in the early 1980s." The Times, as well as related wire reports from the Associated Press and Reuters, have only told readers that Murray is a Democrat in very late paragraphs. Specifically, a newly surfaced May 20, 1984 Multnomah County, Oregon social services document assessing...

We also know that many who supported Ted Cruz were either silent after Donald Trump received the Republican presidential nomination, or went all out on the "vote your conscience" last-ditch attempt to thwart the will of the millions who voted for the party front runner. Some even publicly announced they'd never vote for Donald Trump in the general election and were rewarded with a gubmint job. It now infuriates us that some of the very people who lectured us about "conservative principles" and insulted Trump supporters daily on social media or on their radio programs are now being praised for telling...

President Trump created a stir amid his political opposition when he was reported to have told French first-lady Brigitte Macron: “you’re in such great shape“. Apparently, according to the ever-pliable rules of the virtue signaling political left, it is “sexist” to compliment a woman on her physical appearance. Of course it didn’t take more than a news cycle for yet another corporate entity to jump head-first into the opportunity to attach their own brand-image to anti-Trumpism. [Adidas is the parent company of Reebok] The hypocrisy behind this opportunistic marketing endeavor/virtue-signaling is stunning. Here’s the tweet from Reebok: As you...